Turning 37 million pounds of donated items into funds, and jobs

At Goodwill Manasota, they call it the river -- the flow of donations that supports the organization and stays constant, like water running downhill.

The river flows from the hands of donors to sorting and pricing and from there onto shelves and then to cash registers.

Overseeing the action -- involving 37 million pounds of donations per year -- is Bob Rosinsky, a 41-year Goodwill veteran who joined as a consultant in 1996 and never left.

Now chief executive, Rosinsky is a compact man who radiates an infectious level of enthusiasm.

The goal, said Rosinsky, is simple: Help people improve their working lives.

"The goal is to create employment that is available for people who have the lowest skill level," Rosinksy said. "So if you've been in an accident, you've got a disability, you've got an incurable birth defect, you've got alcohol- or drug-abuse problems or mental-health problems, our job is to find work for you."

In all, Goodwill Manasota generates about $50 million a year in sales from 18 stores, which include a dozen retail and clearance centers, two bargain barns, three bookstores and a specialty store.

Last year, the river allowed Goodwill Manasota to pay out $29 million in wages to 750 direct employees.

Strong management, combined with Southwest Florida's affluence, has catapulted the group near the top of 165 Goodwill organizations in North America.

The local group consistently ranks in the top 25 percent nationwide in overall performance, said Michael Meyer, a vice president of the Rockville, Md.-based organization.

Goodwill Manasota's best-performing store, at 17th Street and Honore Avenue in Sarasota County, generates sales that put it in the top 1 percent of Goodwill's roughly 2,900 stores in the United States and Canada, Meyer said.

Along the way, the group has developed a set of somewhat tongue-in-cheek guiding principles.

"If you have a pile, you have a problem."

"Don't fall in love with your donations. ... Rotation is critical to success."

"Donor value should increase. Profits should increase."

Rosinsky, meanwhile, focuses on making sure the staff has what he calls "effective fun."

"You spend too much time here not to enjoy what you are doing," he said. "The definition of effective fun is coming to work every day with a good attitude and getting a sense of satisfaction from what you're doing."

'THE BEAUTY OF THE BIG BOX'

Goodwill's newest store is on U.S. 41 in North Sarasota, near University Parkway.

In addition to a 16,000-square-foot retail space, the building houses a Goodwill Job Connection office, where clients can search available jobs or get help tuning up their résumés. It's also a place for Goodwill employees to improve their own job prospects by working with a life coach.

The store itself, says Rosinsky, illustrates "the beauty of the big box.

"It puts services next to people," Rosinsky said. "It makes it easy, accessible. There are people inside ready to help them, immediately."

In keeping with the trend toward bigger spaces, Goodwill later this year plans to consolidate its headquarters and training facilities, along with a new store, into a $13 million complex on U.S. 301 in Manatee County.

WOWING THE DONORS

Another Goodwill Manasota guiding principle requires employees to greet donors within 10 seconds of when they park their cars at the new North Tamiami Trail store.

"We want people to be wowed by their experience," Rosinsky said. "We know donors have all kinds of options on where they might donate. And we want them to always come back to us."

Inside, in a back room, Goodwill workers separate donations into a long row of plastic bins, each with a label above it: clothes, knick-knacks, books, metal, DVDs, shoes.

"We are breaking things down into manageable categories so when it goes to the processing area, it can be processed and priced as quickly as possible," Rosinsky said.

Around a corner, other staffers consult a large, wall-mounted list displaying more than 100 common items to determine prices for donated items.

Glenda Lane, who has been pricing Goodwill goods for four years, doesn't need to consult the list. She's memorized it.

"This is a good one," she says of an unused-looking pair of women's shoes. She puts a $9.99 tag where it can be easily seen, and puts an X on the sole, the roman numeral for 10, as a signal to the cashier.

The date-stamped price tag tells workers when an item first came to the store -- and allows the guiding principle about rotation to be practiced.

If an item is not sold at the full Goodwill retail price within three weeks, it is packed and shipped to a clearance center.

Four such centers exist, where goods are marked down by as much as 50 percent from the eight primary stores.

If the item is not sold within three weeks at a clearance center, it is moved yet again -- this time to a Goodwill Bargain Barn.

There, apparel is sold for $1.69 per pound. Linens, blankets, bedsheets and comforters go for $1 a pound, and shoes are priced at $1.50 a pair.

In the front of a Bargain Barn, customers rummage through large trays of merchandise, but they have to move fast: Goods stay on display only for a couple of days.

INTERNATIONAL SALVAGE

Merchandise that fails to sell in front are boxed and offered to outside vendors. Goodwill specialists make sales calls daily to get the best prices from the international salvage market. Most of the salvaged goods end up in the Caribbean, Africa, India or South America, via container ship from Miami.

Bill Buchanan, a salvage manager, said it's not uncommon to offload more than a dozen bales of linens or clothing, weighing in some cases a half a ton.

Shoes get sold this way, too.

One of Goodwill's most consistent shoe buyers is very particular, Buchanan said.

"Nothing with a heel. It has to have a back to it. No flip-flops. He wants function. Good walking shoes."

He gestures to a nearly full box of shoes. On top are a pair of Nike running shoes, size eight, worn but with a lot of life left, by the looks of them.

Buchanan calculates that the box contains about 400 pounds of shoes in it. At the going rate of 85 cents a pound, Goodwill will get around $320 -- money it will plow back into its operation, back into trying to make lives better.

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